As Told Over Brunch is a home for intelligent discourse from the twenty-something perspective - so the stuff you gossip about over mimosas on Sunday morning or over takeout on your friend's couch when happy hour ends too early. We love chatting about our lives, whether it be the relationships we’re building (or destroying), lessons we've learned at work, struggles at school, growing pains we've felt, or even the food we’re talking over.

to support

Here's How It Works

Just show up! (Or make a reservation!)

On Saturday and Sunday, March 24 and 25, show up at one of our participating restaurants, and you can help fund cancer research through VCU Massey Cancer Center and contribute to the local economy. Who knew there was more to brunch than omelets and mimosas?

Here's how restaurants are participating:

*15% of proceeds: All participating restaurants have agreed to give 15% of proceeds during Richmond Brunch Weekend back to VCU Massey Cancer Center.

*Massey Mimosa: Many restaurants are giving even more proceeds to VCU Massey Cancer Center by selling special mimosas - or "Massey Mimosas" - all month long! Be sure to grab one while they last. Better yet, post photos of your #MasseyMimosa on social media, and you'll be entered to win a prize, including gift cards to participating restaurants! (Make sure your post is public so we can see it.)

*Double Brunch contest: If you post a photo of your brunch on both Saturday and Sunday with the hashtags #RVABrunchWeekend #TeamMassey and tag @RichmondBrunch on either Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook, then you will be entered for even more prizes! (Make sure your post is public so we can see it.)

Other Information: No tickets or vouchers are required except for the brunch passport if you want to compete. Brunchers need simply show up at a restaurant on March 24 and 25. Check back for which restaurants are participating on which days. We recommend making reservations through the restaurants’ websites or by phone, though not all restaurants take reservations. And keep in mind, there are a lot of restaurant options. Think about brunching where you haven’t before!

2018 Restaurants:

The week I was supposed to go to France, an article about my old favorite TV show, “Lost,” popped up in my Facebook feed. The article reflected on an episode that premiered a decade before and centered on time travel—a popular theme for “Lost” if you were a fan. In particular, the article mentioned the difficulty in writing the episode because time travel presents several paradoxes that either must be assumed impossible or else time travel must be assumed impossible.

The Grandfather Paradox stuck with me – essentially, you must believe there are certain truths that cannot be altered by time travel. For instance, you can’t kill your grandfather (before at least your parent is born), or else you forfeit your own existence, but you can’t not exist if you are the one changing your own future.

Considering I live 1.5 miles from Cafe Caturra on Grove, it's embarrassing to admit that I've never been brunching there before. This week, I channeled my inner Cazey and tried to be a planner. Granted, I passively invited people to a brunch on Saturday at an undisclosed location at an unknown time.

Clearly I didn't channel enough of Cazey.

Thankfully, someone I invited helped pick the time and location. I did step up at at least make the reservation, since I had no idea how busy it would be.

When I see Weezie's Kitchen, I think, this is a place where you can come get a hangover. The Carytown dive bar sports a vibrant nightlife for the regulars of Cary St. and the Museum District. So it was a pleasant surprise that, in preparation for Richmond Brunch Weekend, I found that it's a place where you can also come to cure a hangover.

The Massey Mimosa is kind of like a dog. You love them all, but that doesn't make them all the same. We have over 20 restaurants creating a Massey Mimosa, and invited them to jazz up the drink however these choose. We encourage creativity. That means if you try one Massey Mimosa, you'll still need to try at least 19 more since they'll all be different. Muah ha ha, but don't feel bad about drinking so many mimosas because $1 from every Massey Mimosa goes back to VCU Massey Cancer Center.

I am that hand you see in all the Instagrams holding the #RVABrunchBar. Wait. You don’t know what the #RVABrunchBar is? Well, grab a chair. You’re going to get so excited that you have to sit down. It’s a brunch-themed ice cream bar. Is there anything better in the world? I mean, probably. But it’s up there. We can all agree on that.

This March Nightingale Ice Cream Sandwiches, a local ice cream sandwich company, will be selling the Brunch Bar throughout Richmond. You’ll be able to find this sweet treat at multiple Richmond locations.

The bar will feature blueberry maple swirl ice cream (!!) and a French toast cookie crunch. Like I said, you need a chair! You don’t want to miss this bar – it’s only available in March, and best yet, 10% from each bar will benefit VCU Massey Cancer Center. So have two! Calories don’t count.

On a rainy Saturday afternoon, I decided I didn’t feel like making lunch so I should go to brunch. I texted my friend Kejdi, and we made our way to a new Richmond Brunch Weekend restaurant, Eggspress. I couldn’t find out much about Eggspress online other than the Yelp menu looked pretty good, so I was excited.

Eggspress is tucked away in Northside. At least I think it’s Northside; I feel like I don’t know Richmond neighborhoods well beyond the Fan, Museum District, and Jackson Ward. I don’t know what that means about me as a person. Anyhow, Eggspress is along Brookland Park Boulevard. My friend remarked that reminds her of a whole other town. If it hadn’t been raining, I would have walked around and taken some cool Instagrams. (Now that probably says even more about me as a person.)

Just about every two years, I get a new phone. That is the ticking time bomb that is an iPhone. The adoption always occurs around Christmas because phones happen to be a common gift from my parents to me.

Two years ago, I got an iPhone 6S. I remembered my saleswoman, “Heather.” Okay, I didn’t remember her actual name, but I remembered her face. She had been this cute, sunshiny personality with just the right amount of sass mixed with professionalism. I remember thinking I liked her, but also being like I can’t ask for her number because I dislike putting customer service representatives in that position. Also, my mom was standing there. Also, she dropped she had a boyfriend in the last two minutes of the conversation.

I parked around the corner from The Speakeasy Grill, and was immediately taken with the quaint house that The Speakeasy Grill is in. I knew it was associated with the Hippodrome Theater, which I assumed would make it a very different ambiance than it was. I was expecting something less quaint.

I didn’t learn how to read until second grade. I don’t know how factual this is, but I remember I told my mom I didn’t understand the worksheets in class and suddenly I was being taken out of Mrs. Pittman’s class on a daily basis to practice reading picture books. For a few weeks, I was given books that made the Berenstain Bears look written by William Faulkner. Soon I graduated to reading the Magic Tree House books. And, in almost time, I checked out Jaws at the public library and never looked back.

My mom says she thought I was faking. How had I gone from being illiterate to reading Peter Benchley?

My future biographers may deduce that I just had confidence issues. Maybe I really could read; I just didn’t believe I could.

The two months right before Richmond Brunch Weekend are both the best and the most expensive, as Sara and I try to tackle brunch reviews at all of our newly participating restaurants. This year has been crazy so far as we have more than 40 restaurants onboard. Words do not do justice for how grateful we feel towards these restaurants for a.) giving back to VCU Massey Cancer Center and b.) helping grow a little dream Sara and I had three years ago just to get people to hear about our blog.

This past weekend my parents came up to tour the VMFA’s Terracotta Warriors Exhibit (which is open through March 11). My parents actually aren’t big brunchers, and my mom didn’t even know what a mimosa was until last year. When a waitress brought me coffee, my mom asked what it was. I told her vodka. So I take back saying they aren’t “big brunchers.” They aren’t brunchers. Period.